


Out of the Darkness, for the Enterprise

by Klaegirl



Series: Kirk's Girl [2]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:07:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27977100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Klaegirl/pseuds/Klaegirl
Summary: Finally everything was as it was suppose to be. James T. Kirk was captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Spock was commander next to his Captain. Lydia was the Lieutenant Liaison on the bridge for engineering.  Bigger yet Jim and Lydia had been in a relationship that was the envy of many. After all Jim left his womanizer life for her and hadn’t looked back once. They knew true love. Now a new mission would change everything once more for them. And a new enemy was coming from the darkness to make sure that Jim, Spock and the whole of the Enterprise crew paid for Starfleet’s mistake.
Relationships: Carol Marcus/Leonard "Bones" McCoy, James T. Kirk/Original Character(s), Spock/Nyota Uhura
Series: Kirk's Girl [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1897009
Comments: 5
Kudos: 3





	1. How to Change a Planet's Destiny 101

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for everyone who has been asking about this. I love this story and I am so happy to actually be writing these next chapter. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

When Kirk had first decided to go down to the Planet Nibiru the last thing he thought would happen was that he would be running from the pissed up natives while trying to save them. They couldn’t explain this, that they were trying to save them, to that natives of course so now he and Bones were running through a red leaved jungle trying not to get kill. Then a big creature rears up in front of him, and Kirk’s first response was to shoot it with a phaser. I mean whose wouldn’t be.  
“Damn it man, that was our ride!” Bones shouted at Jim taking off his facemask. The natives couldn’t see them from where they were at that moment. “You stunned our ride.”  
“Oh great,” Jim said looking around him. At least he hadn’t kill the creature. The natives were still after them though. “Run.”  
“What the hell did you take?” Bones asked as they ran.  
“I've no idea, but they were bowing to it. Kirk to Shuttle one. Locals are out of the kill zone. You are clear. Repeat. Spock, get in there, neutralize the volcano and let's get out of here.”  
“We have to do this now,” said Sulu as he and Lydia got everything ready for Spock’s excursion in the shuttle. “I told the Captain the shuttle wasn't built for this kind of heat.”  
“Well does Jim look like the kind of man to listen when others are in danger?”  
“Well I have seen you two together and I’m pretty sure…”  
“Don’t even go there Sulu,” she said with a look. Seeing him smile back at her they went back to work. It was a thing on the Enterprise.  
Everyone knew that the Captain and the Chief Engineer had a relationship, one that had been going on for a while, but as they both were trying to keep it as private as possible, the crew had decided to make sure to mention it as much as possible. It was a fun day in the Enterprise when someone could actually get the Captain to blush. It was much better if you could get the Chief Engineer to throw something at you as she yell.  
“Captain, did the indigenous lifeforms see you?” asked Spock, who was being strapped into a space suit by Uhura.  
“No, Mister Spock, they did not.”  
“The Prime Directive clearly states there can be no interference with the internal developments of alien civilizations.” Lydia and Sulu smiled at each other. Only Spock would be thinking about the prime directive now. They were racing against the clock and Spock was giving a lecture.  
“I know what it says, which is why I'm running through the jungle wearing a disguise. Now drop off your super ice cube and let's go. “  
“Hey I help with that cube you know,” Lydia said to Kirk. “Show some respect.”  
“Yes I know which is why I am pretty sure it will work. Kirk out.”  
“You're good,” Uhura said looking over Spock.  
“This ash is killing our coils. The shuttle won’t hold on for much longer. We have to do this now,” Lydia turned to Spock giving him the last ok so he would go down to the planet’s volcano.  
“You're sure you don't want me to go instead?”  
“That would be highly illogical as I am already outfitted”  
“Spock, I was kidding,” she said kissing his helmet. “You got this.”  
“Guys! We have to go. Now!”  
“I’ll see you in ninety seconds,” Uhura said to Spock as she closed the bulkhead door to the cockpit.  
“Do it. Do it.”  
Hearing Sulu yelling at her Uhura pulled the lever sending Spock down to the volcano. The same volcano that was about to erupt. This was why they were here. Because a primitive society was about to be wiped out by this volcano. So Spock decided to save them by making the volcano inactive.  
“Prerequisite change, two seven three.”  
“We can't hold this position. Spock, I've got to pull you back up,” Sulu said to the radio.  
“Negative. This is our only chance to save this species. If this volcano erupts, the planet dies.”  
“Pull him back up! Now!” Lydia said looking at the reading.  
The shuttle had just been hit by magma. It was going to burn before they could do anything.  
“Uhura pull him up now,” Lydia said. She wasn’t joking any more. They needed to get out of this volcano, now. Turning she watch as Uhura pulled the lever, but the cable was burn enough to make it break. Seeing the cable, Lydia turned back to the monitors.  
“Spock are you alright?” she asked the Vulcan.  
“I am, surprisingly, alive. Stand by.”  
“We have to get him back. I'll suit up. I'm gonna go down,” Uhura said turning to the spacesuits.  
“We have to abandon the shuttle,” Sulu said starting to turn everything off.  
“We can't just leave him, Sulu.”  
“We don't have a choice,” Lydia said taking Uhura by the shoulders. “Look at me Uhura, I'm sorry, but we are no good to him if we die here. We have to go to be able to help him.”  
Looking at her best friend Uhura knew Lydia was telling her the truth.  
“Spock, we're going back to the Enterprise. We'll get you out of there.”  
“Captain,” Sulu said into the comm. “I'm ditching the shuttle. You've got to make it to the Enterprise on your own.”  
“Wonderful.”  
“Jim go towards the beach, hurry,” Lydia told Jim before moving towards Sulu and Uhura. Lydia was the only one who called Jim by his name instead of Captain or Kirk. Well her and Bones.  
“Uhura, you ready to swim?”  
“I'm ready. Lydia?”  
“Ready.”  
They jumped leaving the shuttle to crash since it wasn’t working any more. They swam all the way to the Enterprise. The Captain had decided to hide the Starship on the bottom of the ocean. Lydia was going to have to talk to the Captain about proper way to take care of ones ship. 

“Do you have any idea how ridiculous it is to hide a starship on the bottom of the ocean? We've been doon here since last night. The salt water's going to ruin the…”  
“Scotty, where's Spock?” Jim asked as he came into the ship.  
“Still in the volcano, sir.”

Jim walked into the bridge with Bones and Scotty behind him.  
“Captain on the bridge!” Chekov said making everyone turn for a second towards him.  
“Lieutenant,” he said to Uhura. “Do we have an open channel to Mister Spock?”  
“The heat's frying his comms, but we still have contact.”  
“Spock?”  
“I have activated the device, Captain. When the countdown is complete, the reaction should render the volcano inert.”  
“Yeah, and that's going to render him inert.” Bones was right if that went off and Spock was inside the volcano then he would die.  
“Do we have use of the transporters?”  
“No Jim,” Lydia said. Everyone else called Kirk either Kirk or Captain. Only Lydia called him Jim, it was something that was just them. And Bones, every once in a while. “Not with these magnetic fields. Too much interference.”  
“I need to beam Spock back to the ship,” Jim said moving to where she sat watching the monitors. “Give me one way to do it.”  
“A direct line of sight? Maybe? If we got closer?”  
“Hold on, wee lassie. You're talking about an active volcano. Sir, if that thing erupts, I cannae guarantee we can withstand the heat.”  
“I don't know if we can maintain that kind of altitude.”

“Our shuttle was concealed by the ash cloud,” Spock said over the comms. “But the Enterprise is too large. If utilized in a rescue effort, it would be revealed to the indigenous species.”  
“Spock, nobody knows rules better than you, but there has got to be an exception.”  
“None. Such action violates the Prime Directive.”  
“Shut up, Spock. We're trying to save you, damn it,” said Bones.  
“Doctor, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”  
“Spock, we're talking about your life!”  
“The rule cannot be broken,” but before he can finish the signal breaks. Looking at Uhura Lydia could see how heartbroken and scared her friend was.  
“Spock! Try to get him back online.”  
“Ninety seconds to detonations.”  
“If Spock were here and I were there, what would he do?” He asked Lydia looking at her and no one else. He needed to hear it from her.  
As much as Lydia hated to say it but it was the truth, “he'd let you die.”  
So Captain Kirk did what he would always do. He would never leave anyone behind. The Enterprise roused from the ocean and flew over the volcano. They beamed Spock to the Enterprise and left the planet behind, never knowing how they would change the destiny of the planet forever. 

“Spock! You all right?” Kirk ran into the transporter room to see if his first officer was all right.  
“Captain, you let them see our ship.”  
“Oh, he's fine.”  
“Bridge to Captain Kirk.”  
“Yes, Lieutenant.”  
“Is Commander Spock on board, sir?”  
“Safely and soundly.”  
“Please notify him that his device has successfully detonated.”  
“You hear that? Congratulations, Spock. You just saved the world.”  
“You violated the Prime Directive.”  
“Oh, come on, Spock. They saw us. Big deal.”

Lydia wasn’t entirely sure what was going to happen to the planet but she was sure Uhura was going to make Spock’s life very difficult. So to make sure she didn’t get any of that sent straight at her she left and went to her room. She needed a shower and some down time. 

The old-style turntable leapt into life and woke them up after a few hours of sleep. Lydia and Jim had moved in together when they came back from their first mission. Well technically, she still had her apartment she just never used it. They like having a space that was theirs, not hers or his, but theirs. She used her apartment more like an office so it was completely covered in plans and blueprints. Or at least that was the excuse she used with Jim, and one he accepted with a smile and a kiss. They complemented each other pretty well. They had blended so seamlessly and you could see it in their apartment.  
“Morning,” Jim said turning to her with a smile. For that he earned a shoved away from her.  
“I want to go back to sleep,” she said turning into her pillow and away from Jim. She heard him laughed as he put his arms around her. He should have known.  
“Well you can stay in bed as long as you want. I, on the other hand, am being called in,” he said holding up his communicator. “Go back to sleep I will be back as soon as possible.” With a kiss to her shoulder, he got out of the bed and went to get ready.  
It took her about another hour before she could get herself into a more human form. She needed a good cup of coffee and a hot shower but she was starting to feel like a human being again. Lydia looked to her desk with a smile. When they had decided to move in together, she had to admit she was worried about her space. Her projects did take some space and she was kind of a mess. Even if she did know where everything was at any given moment. Yet Jim had made sure she had a place for herself and everything she could need at their apartment. She did have offices at Starfleet, and back at her apartment, and she could go in any time she wanted but she loved working from home.  
She sat in front of her computer, with a big cup of coffee, to answer some messages she had gotten. Ever since she had started on the Enterprise, her number one priority was the ship itself and she had to work with Scotty for all the damage that the ship had sustained in this last flight. Still, she had other projects that she needed to work on. People all over the galaxy still asked her to consult on other things as well. She was even working on something for the Federation that would be like nothing ever seen before.  
She had been at it for some hours when the door to the apartment burst open and she saw Jim come into the room. His face was like murder and Lydia was actually scared for whatever had pissed him off like this.  
“Jim? Jim what is going on?” She stood up and went after him.  
Jim had gone into their room and then the closet and Lydia could hear him throwing things around in there. She only hoped that he didn’t make too much of a mess because then he wouldn’t know where anything was to put it back.  
When he came out, he had changed and looked at her.  
“He did it.”


	2. Spock's Betrayal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the disastrous mission in Nibiru Jim had to face the consequences. The problem was that they would come with a lot of problem attached to them. And all because Spock had to be Spock. Who would suffer for his choices? And who was Harrison?

“Who did what?” Lydia asked looking at Jim like he had lost his mind.  
“Spock!” he said as if she was the weird one for not figuring it out. “He made a report about Nibiru and what happened over there and now I have to wait for what the Federation decides to do with me.”   
He walked out of their room and into the kitchen opening all the cabinets and the fridge like he was looking for something. He wasn’t looking for anything though he was letting out stem. The cabinet’s doors were feeling it. Thankfully nothing inside seemed to break because she could only imagine how mad he would be if he actually broke anything.   
“The worst part was seeing Pike’s face.” Jim whispered loud enough for her to hear. It was like all air had left him in a rush and he looked exhausted as he said it.   
“Pike was there?” Lydia knew what that meant to Jim. He loved making Pike proud, and she could only imagine what must be going through his mind right now. They were Admirals Pike’s crowned jewel. The last thing they wanted was to embarrass Pike. It was the equivalent of living down to their fathers’ names.   
“Yeah,” he said putting his head in his hands resting them on the kitchen island. He took a deep breath almost defeated.  
“Hey,” Lydia said walking around and putting her arms around him. “Everything is going to be alright.” She said kissing him on the back of his neck.  
She could feel him breathing with her arms like this. He took a deep breath and finally turned his face toward her. She kissed his forehead and pulled him in harder. She never wanted to let him go. He thought the same thing. He took one of her hands and gave her a kiss in the palm. He breathed her in for one moment and then turned toward her. Taking Lydia’s face in his hands he gave her one of those toe-curling kiss that she loves bringing her up to sit on the kitchen island. His hands made their way down her body and back again under her shirt as he settle between her legs. Things were definitely getting hotter when there was a knock on their door.  
“We can pretend we aren’t home,” Jim said breathless letting his hands wonder once more. Then another knock.  
“I don’t think they are going away,” she said giving Jim a quick kiss and moving out of his arms, off the kitchen island, toward the door.   
She opened the door to come face to face with Admiral Pike.   
“I thought I could find him here,” Pike said looking around her.   
So to make this as uncomfortable as possible for Pike Lydia filled her lungs with air and shouted “KIRK IS FOR YOU!!!!!” Then she walked away to let Jim have some privacy with Pike who was still standing in the door giving her a look. Hey she did respect him. Didn’t mean that she wouldn’t be on Jim’s side no matter what.  
“Good to see how much you’ve grown,” Pike said looking at the man in front of him.   
“What do you mean?”  
“The first time I found you was in a dive, now look at you in your own apartment with a girl you love.”  
She closed the door to the bedroom. Jim needed some privacy, whatever Pike was about to say couldn’t be good. 

She was sitting on her bed reading some reports when Jim walked into their room. He looked like someone who had been beaten by circumstances. Lydia could see it in his face.   
“So what did he say?” she asked making space on the bed for him. He sat behind her putting her between his legs and with his arms around her; he put his face into her neck.   
“I am going to be the Enterprise’s first officer, and Spock was transferred to the U.S.S. Bradbury.”  
“Oh Jim, I am so sorry.” She knew how much he loved being Captain. If anyone was meant to be a Captain, it was him. Jim had earned the love and respect of everyone in the ship. Now to have this happen to him, must be devastating.   
Jim’s arms holding Lydia tighten around her a little.  
“At least you and I will be on the same ship still,” he said into her neck.   
Lydia shut down the computer she had been working on and leaned back into Jim. He needed her more than anything else did now. So, she leaned back and let him hug her in silence.   
Things could have gone further if only Jim’s communicator hadn’t gone off breaking the haven they had made in their room.  
“They need me for something at Starfleet HQ,” Jim said letting go of her and standing. Moving around the room, he kept getting his clothes as he talked. “Don’t want to be late for my first day of First Officer.”  
“Jim,” Lydia said making him look back at her. “Show them why they gave you a ship and I promise they will give you the Enterprise back. Just remind them.”  
“With no Vulcan in sight?” he asked with a smile.  
“You know the Vulcan comes with the territory. But if you like we can put him in clean up duty once you have the ship. That would be a good idea. I don’t think Uhura would mind that much. What do you think my captain?”  
“I love the way you think love,” he said giving her one last kiss before leaving. She really loves that guy. 

Kirk wasn’t entirely sure how he would react to seeing Spock again. All he could hope for was that he wouldn’t punch the Vulcan the second they saw each other.   
As he walked into HQ he came to be face to face with Spock. So of course, he does what any mature person in his position would do and ignored the Vulcan.  
“Captain.”  
“Not any more, Spock.” He said walking away from Spock. “I'm First Officer.” They got to the lift and went up in it. “I was demoted and you were reassigned.”  
“It is fortunate that the consequences were not more severe.” Spock said in his trademark monotone voice. Which only accomplish to make Kirk madder.  
“Oh, you got to be kidding me.”  
“Captain, it was never my intention…” “Not Captain. I saved your life, Spock. You wrote a report, I lost my ship.”  
Finally, the lift got to their landing and Jim walked out of it.   
“Commander,” Spock said correcting himself. “I see now I should have alerted you to the fact that I submitted the report.”  
“I'm familiar with your compulsion to follow the rules, but you see, I can't do that. Where I come from, if someone saves your life, you don't stab him in the back.”  
“Vulcans cannot lie.”  
“Then I'm talking to the half-human part of you,” Jim said turning back to Spock. He wanted Spock to understand him. It was so hard for Jim to understand that Spock couldn’t comprehend what he had done wrong. He had truly thought that he and Spock were on their way to a true friendship. He really believed it. Now he was just glad he hadn’t been transferred away from Lydia, because Spock Prime’s warning would always hunt him. “All right? Do you understand why I went back for you?”  
Spock never got to answer because at that moment Frank Abbott from the Bradbury came to take him away.   
“The truth is I'm going to miss you.” And he would. Jim truly believe that Spock and he had been working towards a good friendship. Now he would never know. He couldn’t help but think about Spock Prime and his Kirk. Was this something that they had to go through? So he walked away, after all there wasn’t anything Spock could say to him now. That was how well they knew each other.

Lydia was running through Starfleet Medical with her heart in her throat. She had received a message from Bones.  
“There was an attack on HQ. Get to the hospital. Jim is alive.”  
At least she knew that Jim was alive, but she needed to see him. What kind of message was that? Did Bones even knew how to send an actual message. Give more details!  
She got to the lift and waited until it took her to the floor where Jim was. Finally, it opens and she runs out.  
“Bones! Bones!” She called making him come out of a room.  
“Lydia! Here,” he said coming to her and taking her into the room. “He is alright, calm down.”  
“What happened?”  
“He’ll tell you,” McCoy said letting her pass him through the door so Lydia could enter the room.  
The room was bare entirely but for a bed, that Jim was sitting on.   
“Jim,” Lydia said running to him. She ended in his arms as Jim pulled her and breathe her in. He held on to her like his life depended on it.   
“I’m alright, I’m alright,” he said trying to calm her.   
“What happen?” Lydia asked pulling back to look at Jim in the face. His face crumbled right in front of her.  
“Pike… he’s dead.”

They were back at their apartment now. McCoy had given Jim permission to leave after clearing him. They had walked back to their apartment in complete silence. Jim had gone straight to the shower and washed the battle of him. He hadn’t said a word since getting home and it was starting to worry Lydia. Pike wasn’t just some man, he had become very important to both of them and now losing him like this. It was going to take a toll on Jim. Lydia knew this. She just wished she knew how to help.  
Finally coming out of the shower, he walked into their room in just sweat pants and walked right into their bed. Lydia had been sitting on her side of the bed waiting for him. She had shut off the lights and the only one on was the lamp next to the bed. He sat next to her lost in thought looking completely lost. Then she heard it. Jim was crying. She took his hand and then Jim broke. He crumble into her arms and cried so all she did was hold him. It was heartbreaking to hear him like this and then Lydia herself started to cry. In each other’s arms, they cried for the man that had become their father. They had gotten justice for their fathers only to lose another one. So they spent the night holding each other. It was the only thing they could do right now. 

It had been a few days since the attack and the energy in the apartment was none existence. Jim barely talked and he didn’t leave unless it was completely necessary. She barely ate. It was as if a stone had lodge itself in the mouth of her stomach. She had so many things to do for the federation but it was like her brain had shut off. Jim on the other hand was as if he was worried about what would happen next. If she moved from one room to the other, he would follow her. While they rest and watched videos he would make sure that he was always touching her. He would sit and work next to her while she made dinner and while she was working. He was never in her way but neither farther than an arm away.   
There was something else. Spock had tried calling and visiting yet Jim didn’t want to talk to him. Jim had told her that in some way he blamed Spock. The only reason Pike was even in the room was because Spock had made his stupid report. If Spock had never done his report, they would have been together in the meeting like a team and Pike would have been safe in retirement. Jim did believe that whatever had happen if Spock had just been the friend he was hoping for none of this would have happened. The truth was that he hated to think it, but if Spock had backed him up Pike would be alive.   
So they spent their days in their apartment holding onto each other.   
“Yeah?” She heard Jim asked as she walked into their room. He was sitting on their bed listening to into his communicator.   
“Commander, Mister Scott has found something in the wreckage of Harrison's ship. He has asked to see us right away.”  
Jim looked up at his girl. They both knew what Scotty was looking into. She had been working with Scotty via message since she didn’t want to leave Jim. She looked back at Jim and said the word he needed to hear to burst out of their apartment.   
“Go.”

So the coward had gone to the Klingon home planet. Lydia had to wonder if he had done it just to get away from them or there was something more. After Scotty had talked to Jim she had called him. She needed to see what he had used to escape. Now here she was in a lab they had been able to take residence in to try to figure out where he had found a portable personal transporter.   
“What do you think lass,” asked Scotty.  
“Whoever made this knew what they were doing. This is advance even for me,” she said looking back at her friend.   
“Figured, now what?”  
“Now I want to know who made this and why did Harrison have it. How did he get it? How did he even knew this technology existed?”  
“What do you need lassie?”  
Lydia looked back at Scotty knowing she could count on him for whatever she needed.   
“Let’s take this apart Scotty and put it back together. Something tells me that whatever Harrison has plan this is just the beginning.”  
They got to work on the machine.   
A week later they were back on the Enterprise. 

When they arrive at the hangar Lydia went directly to find Uhura and left Jim to Spock. It was one thing to tolerate him when necessary today was not a day to hear how Spock knew better than anyone else did.   
“Hey,” she said finding Uhura.   
“Hey, how are you,” her friend asked.   
If there was one friendship Lydia would always be thankful to the Academy for it was Uhura. The girls weren’t really that alike in personalities but they worked so well together. Plus they just got along splendidly.   
“Tell you the truth,” she said boarding the shuttle that was going to take them to the enterprise. Someone passed her a pad with some info on the Enterprise that she needed to read before she started her job. So naturally, she sat and closed her eyes. “I have no idea. Every time that I stop and try to think about what happened, it’s like, I don’t know, my brain decides to shut down for the day.”


	3. The Enterprise's New Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Enterprise is of on a mission. There are just a few problems. The mission isn’t really sanction. They are one man down. There might be some big problems with the ship. What is Lydia going to do to save not only the Enterprise but it’s crew.

Uhura watched her best friend for a moment. She looked like she hadn’t slept for a few days. The truth was Lydia hadn’t. She was exhausted and she was sure the day was just getting started for all of them.   
“Hey I’m here you know you can talk to me,” she said holding Lydia’s hand and making her friend look at her.   
“It feels,” Lydia said turning to Uhura with a smile. “Strange. Like I’m in a dream that I can’t wake up from. It sucks. Wish we could go back to the time when our worst fear was if we were going to get our project in time to the Academy.”   
“Yeah but, think about it, we would never be where we are if we hadn’t moved forward. You are going to be all right Lydia. You are too much of a fighter to not get through this.”   
“The question is how I could help the one I love to get through this himself.”  
“That I don’t know,” Uhura said turning to the front with a frown. “My guy is not the need to talk guy, remember?”  
“So that fight is still going then?”  
“He doesn’t know it but yeah the fight is still going, and he is losing it in a very bad way,” Uhura said listening as Lydia gave a small laugh. It wasn’t much but it was something and if her problems were helping her friend Uhura would continue to be mad at Spock.   
When they got on the Enterprise Uhura decided to look for the Captain. She had yet to talk the Captain and Lydia would want to see him before she started to do her job.   
“Captain. I'm so sorry about Admiral Pike.” Uhura said coming up to him as they walked. Uhura knew how much Pike meant to the two of them, and even if she had already talked to Lydia she still care for her Captain.   
“We all are,” Jim responded moving so he was next to Lydia. Lydia had started to look over what the officer had given her on the shuttle.   
“Are you okay?”  
“Fine, thank you, Lieutenant.”   
They had walked into the turbo lift before he continued.   
“Actually, Scotty just quit,” that seemed to get Lydia’s attention away from her pad. “And your boyfriend's second-guessing me every chance he gets. I'm sorry, that was inappropriate. It's just sometimes I want to rip the bangs off his head. You know, maybe it's me.”  
“It's not you,” said Uhura getting both Lydia and Jim to look at her now. Apparently, not everything was well in that relationship, she had honestly thought most was a joke. Uhura and Spock were so good with each other that it was hard to think Lydia needed to sit and have a long good talk with Uhura now.   
“It's not? Wait, are you guys, are you guys fighting?”  
“JIM!” “I'd rather not talk about it, sir.”  
“Oh, my God. What is that even like?” “JIM!!!” “Ouch, Lydia!”  
With a smile at them Uhura turned toward the lift’s door that were about to opened. Only for them to open on Spock looking at the three of them.   
As the girls stepped off the lift, they could hear Jim asked Spock, “Your ears burning?”  
“Captain on the bridge!” Chekov called to the bridge.  
“Captain.” Sulu greeted.   
“Jim,” Lydia called to him from her station. “If Scotty left I need to go take care of his job.” “No,” “Then who is going to do it? I am the only one that knows this ship as well as Scotty, even better sometimes, no one in this ship can do everything Scotty did but me.”  
“What about your seat here? You are supposed to be my liaison.”  
“Lieutenant Uhura can you open a line of communication exclusively between the Captain and myself?” Lydia asked her friend.   
“Yes of course,” Uhura turned to some of the equipment that she normally kept around her station. There was some headphones that could be connected directly to the Captain’s console, and communicator. “Here,” she said giving her the headpiece.  
“See, now you can communicate with me directly without any problem.” She put the headpiece on and started to walk out of the bridge with Jim on her heels. The crew knowing what this meant gave them a few moments to themselves.   
“If I call, you answer. It doesn’t matter what.”  
“Jim I’m going to be alright. This is what I have trained for you know.”  
“Yeah I know, doesn’t mean I don’t worry and…” he never actually finished because she kissed him. It was a good kiss, that was all Jim could think about while he held her.   
As she stepped away from him and walked backward into the lift with a smile she said, “don’t do anything stupid without me Kirk.”  
Before the lift could close on him, Jim gave her a last smile “never Talbot. It just wouldn’t be any fun.”  
With a smile to her guy the lift closed on them.   
“Retract all moorings, Mister Sulu,” Kirk said going back to the crew and sitting in his chair.  
“Yes, sir.”  
“Docking clamps one, two, and three are released,” the computerize voice said.   
“All moorings retracted.”  
“Lieutenant Uhura, open a ship wide channel.”  
“Yes, sir.”  
“Ms. Talbot, how are we looking down there?”  
“All systems ready, Captain. Warp available whenever you want.”  
“Thank you, Ms. Talbot”  
“Are you really going to call me that now?”  
“All right. Let's ride.”  
“Channel open, sir.”  
As the Enterprise enters warp the whole ship listens as their Captain explains their mission.   
“Attention, crew of the Enterprise. As most of you know, Christopher Pike, former captain of this ship and our friend, is dead. The man who killed him has fled our system and is hiding on the Klingon home world, somewhere he believes we are unwilling to go. We are on our way there now. Per Admiral Marcus, it is essential that our presence go undetected. Tensions between the Federation and the Klingon Empire have been high. Any provocation could lead to an all-out war. I will personally lead a landing party to an abandoned city on the surface of Kronos where we will capture the fugitive, John Harrison, and return him to Earth so he can face judgement for his actions. All right. Let's go get this son of a bitch. Kirk out.”   
As Lydia listened to Jim explain the mission she read over the last of the info in her pad. It was then that she saw there was a new Science Lieutenant called Wallace. There was something wrong here. The last she heard there was no Carol Wallace in the fleet. She did know of a Carol, that was a Lieutenant, that also had her focus in science. Lydia needed to see who this Carol was and why was she lying? 

“So it IS you.”   
Lydia watched as Carol jumped from where she was inspecting the new torpedoes.   
“Oh,” Carol said turning back. “You scared me Lydia.”  
“What are you doing here Carol, and with your mother’s last name and not your father’s?”  
With huge eyes Carol looked at Lydia. Of course, Lydia knew. Did Carol really think she could get away with any of this?   
“I just wanted to see how it was like to be part of the Enterprise crew. It is something a lot of people have been talking so well about and I just…”  
“Carol, stop. What are you doing here really?” Lydia said looking down at the torpedoes. “And can you explain to me what you are doing here with the torpedoes? As far as I know you don’t have permission to be working in here.”  
“Lydia, look I am just trying to understand what is going on here. I just want to understand were these torpedoes came from and why my father decided to give them to Captain Kirk.”  
“Look Carol I understand your curiosity but I cannot have you here, so please I am going to asked you to leave this things alone. You are not assigned to this section so please leave now,” Lydia said. She had nothing against Carol but she was the new chief here and there was something going on here.   
As she watched Carol walked out, Lydia couldn’t help but think something more was going on. Carol was an amazing science officer and she could have worked anywhere. Yet she had decided to stowed herself into a ship that was supposed to be on a secret mission on the orders of her father? Whatever Carol was up to it was going to be trouble.  
As Lydia walked back to her station, her pad lighted up. The worst fear of an engineer who liked to see everything level happened, everything went of level. Things went up and down and she had to take a minute to figure out what was going on. Then she saw where all her problems were coming from. Something was wrong with the core. It was overheating and she had to deal with it. She couldn’t worry about everything that was going on with Carol and her father. She would make sure to talk to Kirk as soon as possible.

“What is going on here?” she asked as she walked into the room.   
“Ma’am we are not really sure what is going on. The core is overheating and we can’t seem to find the leak.” One of the engineers said as she walked in.   
“What do the reading say?”  
“We are almost at 50% ma’am,” said another red shirt. “If we get to 70% we could lose the whole core before we can figure out what is going on.”  
“Alright,” she said moving to the manual brake. “I am going to hit the manual break and shut down part of the system. We will do a whole analysis. I want to know what is going on, and as soon as possible is too slow for me. Once I do this, we will be stranded in unfriendly space. Let’s make sure we find the problem and fix it as fast as we can. The Enterprise and its crew depend on us. Understood?”  
As she watched the red shirts looking at her and giving her a nod, she pulled the emergency brake. Something was happening to her ship and she was going to figure out who was doing this. No one messed with her ship like this.

“Lydia, did you break my ship?” She heard over the comms. She gave everyone a look that made them move into action.   
“Sorry, Kirk. I don't know what happened. The core overheated. I had to activate emergency stop. It must be a coolant leak. We are working to find it and make sure everything is fixed.”  
“How long will you need to get us moving again?” Kirk asked her.  
“I promise, we will not be here more than necessary, not even a second.”  
“Alright let me know when you find out what is wrong.” He said cutting the comm.   
As she sat at the head computer to try to find the leaked and make sure that the core was going to be able to work once they fixed the leak. The system was already in a mess and she was starting to get mad. She had been the lead in the group that updated the Enterprise; she had worked in every part of this ship. Now something was wrong with her baby and she couldn’t find the answer to fix her. If anyone thought that coming to the Enterprise and messing with it was going to be easy she was going to give them a run for their money. She only wished she had Scotty here to vent to as she worked.   
“I'm sure Engineering will have us all patched up by the time we get back,” she hears Kirk through the comms once more. “Isn't that right, Lydia?”  
“I could actually do it a lot quicker if you stopped interrupting me Captain,” she said never looking up from the computer. She had found it, she had found the leak. Now she needed to go and fix it.   
“Great,” she heard Kirk say as she left the station to go fix the leak. 

The room was so hot and full with fumes that were making her job a thousand times more difficult that it had to be. The whole department was working on this. She had two red shirts with her who looked as if they had made their way through a war zone. She was sure she looked the exact same way. Wherever she leaned, she burned herself on another hot piece of equipment. The fumes were making her a little fuzzy. The masks weren’t working and she was about to start screaming obscenities to let go of her frustrations.  
“Here,” she said to the guy next to her giving him one of the tools she was using. She was sure she knew the poor guys name but she couldn’t think right now. Pointing to a lever, she gave him some instructions. “When I tell you turn it 156 degrees and then stop. You,” she turned to the girl next to her. “Watch this number, if it goes over 35% tell him and turned it all back off. Understood?”   
They both nodded at her so she jumped from where she had been hanging and turned the system back on. Lydia could feel everyone in engineering hold their breath. She could see how the system turned on and everything came to life one by one. Once everything was on once again she held her breath and Greg, that was his name, turned the lever the way she had said. Getting a thumbs up she turned to Elisha, that was her name, see she did know them.   
“It’s rising,” Elisha said. “And it’s holding at 10%.” That was good. The most it could go before it started to become a problem was 30% more than that was a real problem. 10% was exactly where you wanted it to hold.   
Lydia could feel the whole of the engineering department breathe a sigh of relived and start relaxing for a moment. The job wasn’t done yet and everyone knew it, but a moment of reprieve for the crew was necessary.   
“Alright everyone no time for rest. Lets go we still have things to do. The core needs some love,” she said making sure everyone started moving.   
“Lydia are you there?” she heard Kirk coming in trough her comm.   
“Yeah, sorry Jim, we are still working on the problem.”   
“Do you have a minute to come up here?”  
“What for?” She asked moving around people trying to get to her station. She needed to run another simulation on the core. To see how it was reacting.   
“We need you to open a torpedo.”   
For a moment Lydia stopped what she was doing. She wasn’t entirely sure she had heard right but if she did she was going to have to go up there before fixing the core became a mood point.   
“Elisha,” she said turning to the engineer walking next to her. “Run the simulations and let me know what you find.”  
“Of course ma’am.”  
“Jim,” she said making a full turn and running to wherever Kirk was. “Don’t touch anything I am on my way. I don’t want you blowing us up before I can actually save the ship.”


	4. Harrison or Kahn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Lydia had been doing her job Jim, Uhura and Spock had gone and gotten Harrison. Now she had to figure out if opening a torpedo, the way Harrison had dared them, was going to get them kill. Also, if it was worth the risk of what she would find once she was messing with them.

“Are you out of your corn-fed mind? You're not actually going to listen to this guy? He killed Pike. He almost killed you. And now you think it's a good idea to pop open a torpedo because he dared you to.”  
She heard Bones saying as she made her way to where he and Spock were with Jim. Apparently, she had spent more time in engineering doing her thing that she knew.   
“Why did he save our lives, Bones?” Jim said turning around when he felt her coming. He pulled her into him and threw his arms around her hugging her. He hadn’t seen her in a while and they had both been feeling the absence of the other. He had been so stress without her there to bounce his ideas with her.   
“The Doctor does have a point, Captain.”  
“Don't agree with me, Spock. It makes me very uncomfortable.”  
“Perhaps you, too, should learn to govern your emotions, Doctor. In this situation, logic dictates…”  
“Logic? Oh, my God! There's a maniac trying to make us blow up our own damn ship and you talk about…”  
“That's not it,” Kirk said turning toward Bones with her still in his arms. “I don't know why he surrendered, but that's not it. Look, we're going to open a torpedo. The question is how.”  
“Alright stop,” she told the three guys making them turned towards her. “Slow down and explain to me everything that has been going on because the last thing I knew you were on your way to restrain Harrison.”   
So, Jim and Bones took a few minutes to tell her everything they had missed. How Jim, Spock, and Uhura had gone to Titan and Harrison had given himself up when he heard about the torpedoes. The fight with the Klingons. Then coming back and everything Harrison had said about the torpedoes while he was imprison.   
“That’s why we need you to open the torpedoes. We need to know what he wants with these torpedoes and why he wants us to open it,” Jim said turning to her.   
“Well we can’t really open them on the ship. Anything could go wrong. We could even ask Carol and see what she knows. She was trying to look into them.”  
“Carol, what Carol,” asked Jim as they started walking toward the weapons bay.   
“The Admiral's daughter,” Spock said making Lydia give him a look. Of course, he would have figure it out. “She appeared to have interest in the torpedoes, and she is a weapons specialist. Ms. Talbot is right; perhaps she could be of some use.”  
“What Admiral's daughter?”  
“Carol Marcus. Your new science officer concealed her identity to board the ship.”  
“When were you going to tell me that?”  
“When it became relevant. As it just did.”  
“You really think she could help,” Jim asked Lydia as he gave Spock a look. Apparently, they were going to have a conversation pretty soon.  
“I just want to know what she knows. There is a reason she transferred to the Enterprise under her mother’s name. This girl was like half the crew in the Enterprise. She could have gone anywhere in the Federation she wanted. Why sneak onto our ship?”  
“Alright then let’s find her. Bones go back to the medical bay. Spock to the bridge.”  
“Yes Captain,” they said at the same time as they parted.  
“So,” he asked. “Where to first?” he said smiling down at her. With a quick kiss, leaving him completely frozen, she walked off.   
“Move Jim,” she smiled at him over her shoulder watching as he caught up with her. “Let’s find Carol.”

“Carol,” Lydia called out watching as the girl turned toward her and Jim.   
“Captain, Lieutenant Talbot what may I help you with?”  
“You can tell us the real reason why you transferred to our ship,” Jim said standing next to Lydia. “Was it because of the torpedoes?”  
“Yes,” she said looking at the Captain. Carol knew she was in trouble, after all, she had lied her way into the ship and if there was anything everyone in Starfleet knew it was that the crew of the Enterprise loved and were very zealous with their ship.   
“Alright then, what are they?”  
“I don't know,” she told the Captain. “That's why I forged my transfer onto your ship to find out why. I do apologies for that. By the way, if I caused you any problems, I am sorry. I'm Carol Marcus.”  
“Good to know,” Jim said. “Could you now explained to us why you decided to forge your way onto our ship?”  
“My father gave me access to every program he oversaw, and then I heard he was developing these prototype torpedoes. When I went to confront him about it, he wouldn't even see me. That's when I discovered the torpedoes had disappeared from all official records.”  
“And then he gave them to me.”  
“You're much cleverer than your reputation suggests, Captain Kirk.”  
“Alright enough of that.” Lydia didn’t like anyone talking badly about Jim and as much as she may like Carol Jim would always be her number one.   
“Sorry,” Carol said watching as the Captain looked at her friend with something she couldn’t really explain in his eyes. “The only way to find out truly what the torpedoes are is to open them.”  
“The problem is we can’t open the torpedoes on the ship, is too dangerous.” Lydia said under her breath almost as if she was saying this to herself. She turned and started walking away from them her brain going into overdraft. She was starting to see what Jim meant when he said that whatever Harrison wanted it wasn’t to blow them up.   
“Lydia where are you going?” Jim took off after her trying to keep up. “We will talk later Ms. Wallace.” He said turning back to the blonde who was left looking after them.   
“Lydia stop, what are you thinking about,” he said coming up next to her.  
“ls the shuttle prepped to fly?”  
“Of course it is.”  
“I need Bones’ help.”  
“Bones? Lydia,” he called as she kept on walking without looking at him. “Why Bones!”

As Bones was getting ready to go down to the planetoid Lydia was giving some explanation to the engineering crew.   
“So you know what’s wrong with my ship,” Jim asked her as the crew walked away to complete her orders.   
“We found the leak but it made a substantial amount of damage. It’s going to take them a while to fix it though.”  
“Any idea what cause it,” he asked her.   
“Some,” Lydia said looking up at Jim. “None that would make you feel any better.”  
“Lydia,” he said pulling her into his arms and holding her face in his hands like it was something precious. “We can do this; we can get out of this one. We always do.”  
She looked up at him with a smile. If there was anyone who could make everything better for everyone it was Jim. She just needed to make sure someone would take care of him.   
“Let’s go,” he said taking her hand and pulling her along. “We need to make sure you don’t blow up my ship while trying to save it.”  
“Hey have you forgotten I am the smart one here Jim.”  
“Never love, never.”

“So how much are you hating the fact that I am down here right now Jim?”   
“Bones,” Jim said walking into the bridge. “Could you please concentrate because I swear I would leave you down there if I have to choose between you two. The only reason it’s you down there it’s because Lydia asked for you specifically.”  
They had made their way down to the planetoid that was abandon with one of the torpedoes. Now they had to open it without blowing each other up.   
“You know when I dreamed of being alone on a planet with a woman like this Lydia was never in the picture.”  
“Doctor McCoy…” Jim looked around as the bridge heard what could only be described as a slap.  
“Jeez woman, it was a joke, you are more violent lately than normal.”  
“Concentrate will you. You do realize that to understand how powerful these weapons are, we need to open the warhead. To do that, we need to access the fuel compartment. Unfortunately for us, the warheads on these weapons are live. So if you don’t concentrate the last thing I could see in this life is your face. That’s not the last thing I want to see in my life Bones”  
“I am offended you know. You do remember who I am right. I could do this in my sleep Lydia. I am a Doctor I have some of the steadiest hand in the universe.”  
“Let’s do this Bones so we can get back to the ship and away from here.”   
“Alright then,” McCoy said as he put the thigs he was carrying on the ground and they started working on the torpedo.

Lydia had gotten to work pretty quickly. As McCoy watched her, he could see the girl she used to be. Lydia had grown into an amazing woman and a kick ass engineer that was the Fleet’s pride and joy. He remembered the long nights were between Jim and himself they had to make sure that she had something to eat and drink. Make sure she didn’t pass out from exhaustion. He looked at Lydia now and could see his amazing friend, and why Jim was so in love with her. If only he could find someone like that.   
“Alright Bones,” Lydia said as she looked into the torpedo. “There's a bundle of fiber optic cables against the inner casing. You'll need to cut the twenty third wire down. Whatever you do, do not touch anything else. Do you understand?”  
“Right because the first thing I thought about doing was exactly that. On your command Lydia.”   
“I'm rerouting the detonation processor. Are you ready?”  
“Yes.”  
“Here we go.”  
The something went wrong. The hatch closed on Bones’ arm and trapped him against it. He was trapped and the countdown had started. The missile was going to blow.   
“What the hell happened? I can't get my arm out!”  
“Trip wire, just hold on a second I will get you out.” Lydia said without looking up at any moment.   
“Target their signal…,” they could hear Jim talk on the bridge, but Lydia wasn’t paying much attention. She need to get Bones out now. “Lydia, can you disarm it?”  
“I'm trying. I'm trying.”  
“Jim, get her the hell out of here.”  
“Don’t even think about it Jim. Let me do my job.”  
“Ten. Nine. Eight.” She heard Bones start to count. She just needed to make sure they were both away when he came down to one.   
“Standing by to transport Lieutenant Talbot on your command, sir.”  
“Four. Three.”  
There was an old saying in the engineer workshops back in the Academy. If something didn’t do what you wanted just brake it and start anew. So that is exactly what she did. Lydia ripped out the whole mechanism out of the torpedo with two seconds to spare and a big old “SHIT”.  
“Deactivation successful, Captain.” They heard from Spock as they looked at each other. Bones was all right and right now, that was all that mattered. The compartment had opened and let him get away from in.  
“Doctor McCoy, are you all right?” Kirk said as both Bones and Lydia stood to look inside the torpedo. “Bones!”  
Looking at each other after looking inside the torpedo Bones said, “Jim? You're going to want to see this.”   
There was someone inside the missile.


	5. A True Bretayal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Enterprise and its crew is confronted by their mortality when they face an enemy they thought was a friend. Now they are on a fight to survive and as everyone know the Enterprise never gives up. Especially when they have an allied on the outside.

They made it to the med bay. They had stopped on the way to talked to Carol and had brought her along. She was a doctor as well so she may be able to help them. Besides, she had been looking into the torpedoes maybe she knew something that could help. Only she knew some secrets about the torpedoes, after all she had been studying them for some time.   
“What have we got?”  
“It's quite clever actually,” Carol said as they started taking the torpedoes apart. “This fuel container's been removed from the torpedo and retrofitted to hide this cryo tube.”  
“ls he alive?” Kirk asked looking down at the man inside the tube.   
“He's alive. But if we try to revive him without the proper sequencing, it could kill him. This technology's beyond me.”  
“How advanced, Doctor?”  
“The other way around Spock,” Lydia turned from where she had been looking into the mechanism of the missile. “That cryo tube is ancient. Since we develop warp technology, none of this technology has been needed in any way. Which means that this man in here is three hundred years old.” She finished turning to both Jim and Spock.   
“I’ll be right back,” Jim said walking out of the Med Bay with Spock on his heels.  
“What is going on here Lydia?” McCoy asked looking down at the man in the cryo tube once more.   
“I have no idea Bones,” she said. Her comm started beeping with a message. The engineering department needed her once more. Turning to Carol, she said. “Hey I am so sorry to be dumping this on you, but could you stay here and help Doctor McCoy out with everything. Something tells me we are going to need to be moving once more really soon.”   
“Of course,” she replied giving a side eye to McCoy.   
“Of course you will be just fine,” Lydia smiled at her as she moved to where McCoy was. “Hey I need to get back to the core I’ll leave you in good hands.” Lydia smiled at Carol. “Let me know if you need anything.”  
“It’s all right Lydia go, the faster you fixed our ship the faster we can get out of here.”

The moment Lydia walked down to the engineer level she could see the mess.   
“All right someone tell me what is going on.”  
One by one cadets came up to her to explain the progress they had made. She read all the reports and saw all of the improvement. The she went to work. The core needed a little love and she was ready to give it to her. 

Lydia had been shocked three times and had burned herself at least five when her comms came to life.   
“Captain to Lydia can you hear me?”   
“Yeah,” she said letting go of the cables she had just finished securing together and picking up her comm. “What is it Jim?” she asked wiping the sweat out of her eyes. She had to admit being tiny was a good thing when you had to fit into really small nooks.  
“Can we warp?”  
“Well technically yes, but if we do we risk the core.”  
“Does that mean yes?”  
“That means it’s not my fault when we blow up.”  
“Dully noted. Mr. Sulu set a course for earth.”  
Lydia felt the core purr as they went into warp. Everything was stable for now and she really needed to talk to Jim. They hadn’t had a chance to speak since everything started. She needed at least a hug. So she started making her way to the bridge making sure Elisha knew where she was going.   
She walked onto the bridge to see everyone losing their mind.   
“Jim what is going on?”  
“Captain! I'm getting a reading I don't understand.”  
As they looked up a ship that was easily three sizes the Enterprise enter the warp space of their ship. The other ship started firing against the Enterprise until it knock them of course. Lydia could feel Jim’s arms around her as they settle from the attack.   
“Where are we?” Jim asked Sulu as he still held her in his arms.   
“We're two hundred thirty seven thousand kilometres from Earth.”  
“Damage report!”  
Lydia moved to her old station to read the damage. It was bad.   
“Weapons are way down. Shields are dropping.”  
“We're defenceless, Jim. We have a bulkhead breach.”  
“Where's the damage?” he asked.  
“Major hull damage, Captain.”  
“Captain, stop! Everybody on this ship is going to die if you don't let me speak to him.” Carol said putting herself in front of Jim.   
He looked up at Lydia knowing that if there was anyone he needed to protect was her. “Uhura, hail him.”  
“Sir. It's me. It's Carol.” She turned looking towards the screen when her father came into view.   
“What are you doing on that ship?”   
“I heard what you said. That you made a mistake and now you're doing everything you can to fix it. But Dad, I don't believe that the man who raised me is capable of destroying a ship full of innocent people. And, if I'm wrong about that, then you're gonna have to do it with me on board.”  
“Actually, Carol, I won't.” Then a transporter effect started around her. She was being taken out of the ship without any permission from the Enterprise.   
“Oh! Oh! Jim.” Carol yelled looking for someone to save her.   
“Can we intercept the transport signal?”  
“No, sir.”  
“Carol!” She tried she really did, but it was hard getting to her before she disappeared.   
“Captain Kirk, without authorization and in league with the fugitive John Harrison, you went rogue in enemy territory, leaving me no choice but to hunt you down and destroy you. Lock phasers.”  
“Wait, sir. Wait, wait, wait!” Jim said. He knew that this would be the last attempt to save his crew.  
“I'll make this quick. Target all aft torpedoes on the Enterprise Bridge.”  
“Sir, my crew was just, was just following my orders. I take, I take full responsibility for my actions. But they were mine and they were mine alone. If I transmit Khan's location to you now, all that I ask is that you spare them. Please, sir. I'll do anything you want. Just let them live.”  
“That's a hell of an apology. But if it's any consolation, I was never going to spare your crew. Fire when”  
After the transmission was ended, Kirk turned towards his crew, his family. “I'm sorry.” Lydia moved to stand next to him and hold his hands. If there was any way this was going to be their last moment she was not going to let him leave alone.   
“Their weapons have powered down. Sir.” Sulu said turning to his station seeing how the Vengeance powered down. Then they heard a voice come over to the Enterprise. Never had anyone on that ship been so happy to hear Scotty before.   
“Enterprise! Can you hear me?”   
“Scotty!” Jim turned toward the front of the ship. They were not down yet and now they had a moment to breath. Yeah they had a chance and he was going to take it.   
“Guess what I found behind Jupiter.”  
“You're on that ship!”  
“l snuck on, and seeing as I've just committed an act of treason against a Starfleet Admiral, I'd really like to get off this bloody ship. Now beam me out!”  
“You're a miracle worker. We're a little low on power right now. Just stand by. Stand by.”  
“What do you mean, low on power? What happened to the Enterprise? Call you back.” Then he was gone.   
“Scotty! Spock. Our ship how is she?” Jim asked moving around watching as the crew got back into place. Lydia flew to her station. She needed to make sure the Enterprise could move as soon as possible. If not before that.   
“Our options are limited, Captain. We cannot fire and we cannot flee.”  
“There is one option. Uhura, when you get Scotty back, patch him through.”  
“Yes, sir.”  
“Mister Spock, you have the comm.”  
As they walked out of the bridge, Uhura and Lydia looked at each other. Their boys had left and the girls knew that they would need all the help they could get. 

Lydia was pretty sure her boyfriend was insane. That was the only reason she could think that anything he was saying made sense.   
“You want Sulu to do what?”  
“I need him to move the Enterprise so that it can line with the other ship. We’ll jump and get there so that we can stop the ship from the inside out.”  
“Jim,” she said turning to make sure she had some privacy on her private comms. “Are you insane? This is crazy and you know it.”  
“Of course I know it but if I don’t do it then who? You and I both know how bad this could go if I don’t take down that ship. I need to take care of them. It had to be me. The Enterprise is going to be better with you and Spock on the helm. Of that I have no doubt.”  
“Alright here is the deal. You go in, get Scotty and Carol out and come back. Nothing less nothing more, and not one piece of you missing. I don’t like the idea of you over there alone with either Marcos or Kahn. Understood?”  
“Yes ma’am,” Lydia could hear the smile on his face as he said this. He was still down on the med bay with Kahn.   
“Well,” she said turning back to everyone on the bridge. “You heard the Captain. Sulu move the ship, everyone back to your stations. Let’s make sure that when the Captain comes back everything is ready to move this ship lets go.” Everyone started moving and Lydia watched as Sulu moved the Enterprise. 

Spock came on the bridge then and they watched as the ship slowed to position.   
“Tell me the truth Spock, is this going to work?” She asked not even turning to him.   
“The truth, I don’t know. I have seen the Captain done incredible things. I don’t know if this one he could manage.” Then he turned to Uhura. “Lieutenant, from our current position, is it possible to establish contact with New Vulcan?”  
“I'll do my best,” she said turning back to her station.   
“Thank you. Mister Sulu, what is the status of the other ship?”  
“Their systems are still offline. I'm aligning our ship now.”  
“New Vulcan?” Lydia asked Spock. She knew who was there but she wasn’t sure what Spock wanted with him.  
“It’s an idea. He once said that our experiences however different put us in similar paths. We all ended up where we did on his time. So what if Kahn did as well. Maybe, in that logic, he also confronted him as well.”  
“And as he has made it through he could tell us how,” Lydia said finishing his thought process. It was just an idea, but a really good one.   
“Yes.”   
It took a few more moments and then they heard, “Commander, our trash exhaust is aimed at access port 101A of the other ship.”  
“Jim the ships are aligned. Whenever you are ready,” Lydia said.   
They could hear everything going on. Jim was getting ready so was Scotty.   
“I'm in the hangar. Give me a minute. I'm running. Stand by. Whoa, whoa, hold on, now, Captain. This door is very wee. I mean, you know, small. It's four square metres, tops. It's gonna be like jumping out of a moving car, off a bridge, into your shot glass.”  
“It's okay. I've done it before.” Jim said and Lydia could remember that day. It had been a fun day without a doubt. “Yeah, it was vertical. We jumped onto a. It was a. It doesn't matter. Scotty”  
“Did you find the manual override?”  
“The manual override, Scotty.”  
“Not yet, not yet.”  
“Captain, before you launch, you should be aware there is a considerable debris field between our ships.”  
“Spock, not now. Scotty, you good?”  
“It's not easy! Just give me two seconds, all right, you mad bastard! Tell me this is gonna work.”  
“Lord let this work,” she heard Bones say as he stop next to Spock and herself.   
“Come on, come on, come on. Yes! Okay, okay! I'm set to open the door.”  
“You ready?”  
“Are you?” Lydia hated Kahn’s voice. There was nothing of him that in anyway could make her feel like she could trust him.   
“Spock, pull the trigger.”  
“Yes, Captain. Launching activation sequence on. Three, two, one.”  
Then the hatch opened and out they went.


	6. Kirk's Jump

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jim had made the jump into space with Kahn. Now the Enterprise crew watched as their Captain made his way from his ship to the Vengeance. With the help of an old friend Spock makes a decision.

Seeing the reading on screen Lydia moved to talked to Jim. “There is debris directly ahead Jim.” She was monitoring everything that was happening to Jim.   
“Copy that.” They watch as he swerved around it on screen.   
“Whoa! Jim, you're way off course!”  
“I know, I know. I can see that.”  
“Use your display compass, Captain.” Sulu tried helping Jim to correct his course. “You must correct precisely thirty seven point two four three degrees.”  
Everyone on the bridge was holding their breath. This was their captain. They needed him back.   
“Got it. I'm working my way back. Scotty, you're gonna be ready with that door, right?” When Scotty didn’t respond Jim asked again. “Mister Scott, where are you?”  
“Captain, he can't seem to hear you,” said Uhura.  
“It he still online?” Lydia asked looking back at Uhura.   
“I'm working on getting his signal back. Stand by.”  
“Damn it.”  
“Captain, what is it?” Spock asked walking once more toward the screen.   
“My helmet was hit. Uhura, tell me you have Mister Scott back.”  
“Not yet. I'm still working on a signal.” The she took a moment. “His communicator is working. I don't know why he isn't responding.”  
“Jim is your screen still working?”  
“It’s holding on if that’s what you mean.”  
“Imminent collision detected.” Sulu said as they looked at Kahn’s screen.   
“Khan, use evasive action. There is debris directly ahead.”  
“I see it.”  
“I think we lost Kahn there,” Lydia said looking at her station trying to see where he had gone. He had disappeared from the screen.   
“Not only that but it’s so hard tracking him in all this debris. We can’t get a clear signal.”  
“Was Khan hit?” Kirk’s question was heard on the bridge.  
“We are trying to find him now,” Spock said.   
“Captain, you need to adjust your target destination to one eight three by four seven three degrees.”  
“Guys, my display's dead. I'm flying blind,” Spock and Lydia looked at each other as they heard the Captain. He wasn’t going to make it.   
“Captain, without your display compass, hitting your target destination is mathematically impossible.”  
“Spock, if I get back, we really need to talk about your bedside manner.”  
“Commander, he's not going to make it.”  
That’s when Kahn decided to reappear again on screen.   
“My display is still functioning. I see you, Kirk. You're two hundred meters ahead of me at my one o'clock. Come to your left a few degrees and follow me.”  
“Scotty, we're getting close. We need a warm welcome. Do you copy? Do you copy? Scotty?”  
“Scotty if you can hear us,” Lydia moved to the comm to talk to Scotty. “Open the door in ten, nine…” “Scotty!” “Eight, Seven…” “Mister Scott, where are you?” “Six, five…” “Scotty, where are you?” “Three” “Do you copy, Scotty? Please!” “Two, Scotty, open the door!” “Open the door!”  
“Mister Scott, now!” Spock commanded behind her. It was silent for a few seconds until they heard Scotty.  
“Welcome aboard.” They heard. Then the bridge knew their captain had made it.  
It had been the tensest moments lived in that bridge. The crew looked around. Now they had to wait until Jim called back to them. For now they had to wait. So Lydia did what she always did she went to her station to try to get the Enterprise ready. They needed to move as soon as possible, they needed to get to Starfleet.   
“Commander, I have that transmission as requested.” Uhura had done it. She had gotten a line of communication with new Vulcan. What Spock wanted with Prime Spock Lydia had no idea but she wanted to hear this.   
“On screen, please.” Spock said turning to Uhura.   
“Stand by.”  
They all turned to the screen. After their first adventure, together Spock and Jim had told Uhura and McCoy everything about Spock Prime. Uhura had been confuse and amaze. Bones’ world had been turned upside down, and he made sure they all understood how he was not all right with that.   
“Mister Spock.” Spock Prime said as he came on screen.   
“Mister Spock.” Their Spock answer looking at himself on screen. Lydia always wondered how that may feel. After all Spock was one of the few being in the universe who could actually talk to a future self, if not the only one. 

“I will be brief. In your travels, did you ever encounter a man named Khan?” For a moment, everyone on the bridge held their breath. They could see the way Spock Prime’s face changed and contorted. There was something more to whatever was going on with Kahn and this Spock understood they needed to know what that was.   
“As you know, I have made a vow never to give you information that could potentially alter your destiny. Your path is yours to walk and yours alone. That being said, Khan Noonien Singh is the most dangerous adversary the Enterprise ever faced. He is brilliant, ruthless, and he will not hesitate to kill every single one of you.”  
“Did you defeat him?”  
“At great cost. Yes.”  
Looking around at his crew Spock saw all the lives that he had to protect, all the lives that Jim had put in his metaphorical hands. “How?” He was going to keep his crew safe.   
As they listen to Spock Prime talked about the time he took on Kahn in his time on the Enterprise the whole bridge stopped. They could never defeat Kahn with strength but they were one of the best crew out there and this wasn’t going to stop them. Spock looked at Lydia he knew exactly what he needed to do.   
“Lieutenant,” Spock turned toward Uhura. “I need you to assemble all senior medical and engineering staff in the weapons bay.”  
“All right,” she said turning toward her station and sending the message.   
“Lieutenant Talbot,” again he turned to the person he was talking to. “You inadvertently activated a torpedo. Could you replicate the process?”  
“Yeah it shouldn’t be that hard,” she said.  
“Doctor McCoy come with us we need your expertise.”  
“For what?” Bones asked as the three moved to the turbo lift.   
“We are going to activate the torpedoes,” Spock told them.  
“Are you out of your Vulcan mind,” Bones yell at Spock. “What about the people inside them. What about our ship.”  
“Trust me Doctor,” Spock said as they walked into the weapon bay. “They are not going to explode on our ship. And the people in them are not going to suffer from this. That’s why I need you right now.”  
Lydia moved to the closet torpedo and turned to her engineer team.   
“Alright,” she call to her engineers. “This is what we have to do. We are going to activate this torpedoes. Once the Medical crew takes all the cryo tubes out. We follow the same protocol so that they go of at the same time. I will be connecting them all to this pad. This is our way to keep the Enterprise safe, let’s do this.”  
The med crew and engineer crew got to work having Bones and Lydia going around making sure that as the cryo tubes were taken out and the torpedoes were ready to go the crew wouldn’t blow the Enterprise up. They had to work fast. The only way that Kahn would not question this was if there was no one in the weapons bay with the torpedoes.   
Spock watched as the cryo tubes were taken out of the torpedoes by the med crew and almost automatically, the engineers took over to make sure that it would be arm. This is why he like Starfleet. They were a team and if Kahn thought, there was any way that he could defeat them then he was wrong. For a moment Spock felt what humans must feel when faced with a problem. Hope. 

She had made it. Lydia had just finish making sure the last of the torpedoes was in their tubes. She ran all the way to the bridge after making sure her pad was connected to the torpedoes. The only way to activate all the torpedoes at the same time was wirelessly. It was going to have to work no one could be in the room when Kahn asked for them and if they had started them before they could have had a lot of problems.   
“Lieutenant,” Spock called to her as she made it to the bridge. “Is everything ready?”  
“Yes Commander, everything.” She showed him her pad where the connection was ready. All she needed to do was hit send and every torpedo would turn on at the same time.   
“Thank you,” Spock said then turned to Sulu. “Where is the Captain, Mister Sulu?”  
“Our sensor array's down, sir. I can't find him.”  
Then the view screen turned on. The crew watched as Kahn walk into the view with Jim in his arms a phaser to his head. Lydia had to keep a scream in because that was her reaction. Uhura moved next to her to hold her hand. Lydia though couldn’t take her eyes of Jim.   
“I'm going to make this very simple for you. Your crew for my crew.”  
“You betrayed us.” Lydia actually like Spock, truly she did, but for a moment, she wanted to hurt him when he said this.   
“Oh, you are smart, Mister Spock.” And now she wanted to hurt Kahn.  
“Spock don't,” Jim tried saying before he was knocked out by Kahn. Lydia had to hold herself back for a moment. All she wanted was to scream at Kahn and swear to destroy him. Shove it in his face how he wasn’t going to win. She couldn’t do that though, this had to be Spock’s show or it would never work.   
“Mister Spock, give me my crew.”  
“And what will you do when you get them?” The crew watched as these two started a match with each other knowing where this was going to end.   
“Continue the work we were doing before we were banished.”  
“Which, as I understand it, involves the mass genocide of any being you find to be less than superior.”  
“Shall I destroy you, Mister Spock? Or will you give me what I want?”  
“We have no transporter capabilities.”  
“Fortunately mine are perfectly functional. Drop your shields.”  
“If I do so, I have no guarantee that you will not destroy the Enterprise.”  
“Well, let's play this out logically then, Mister Spock. Firstly, I will kill your Captain to demonstrate my resolve. Then if yours holds, I will have no choice but to kill you and your entire crew.”  
“If you destroy our ship, you will also destroy your own people.”  
“Your crew requires oxygen to survive, mine does not. I will target your life support systems located behind the aft nacelle. And after every single person aboard your ship suffocates, I will walk over your cold corpses to recover my people. Now, shall we begin?”  
“Lower shields.”  
“A wise choice, Mister Spock. I see your seventy-two torpedoes are still in their tubes. If they are not mine, Commander, I will know it.”  
“Vulcans do not lie. The torpedoes are yours.” With that line, Lydia armed the torpedoes.   
“Thank you, Mister Spock.”  
“I have fulfilled your terms. Now fulfil mine.”  
“Well, Kirk, it seems apt to return you to your crew. After all, no ship should go down without her captain.”


	7. The Enterprise's Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything started falling apart. The Enterprise’s heart stops beating.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I Am BAAAAAAAACK
> 
> So whenever I think of an au that I want to write it's because of one scene that lives in my head in a different way. That scene that starts everything in my head. That scene is in this chapter. I wonder if anyone could figure out what scene it is. Let me kow.

Alarms started going off almost automatically and everyone was on high alert.   
“He's locking phasers on us, sir!” Lydia heard Sulu say as she watch her computer to see what was going on. She needed to get back to the core. The ship needed to start to move, Now! “Shields at six percent!” he said as the felt the first hits.   
“The torpedoes. How much time, Lieutenant?”  
“Twelve seconds, sir!” Lydia said looking at her pad.   
“Crew of the Enterprise, prepare for imminent proximity detonation.”  
Hearing that, Lydia ran out of the bridge. She needed to get back to the lower level. The core wasn’t actually working at its highest and she needed to make sure the ship could hold on for what was coming next. The ship shook with the force of the torpedoes exploding near them. She saw some people fall to the floor but they all stood once more.   
“Anyone hurt go to med bay anyone who is not go back to your jobs. The Enterprise is under attack and we need to do our job.” Everyone moved around her some helping a few get to the med bay.   
Lydia kept moving helping whomever she could help and making sure the system where not failing all around. Getting to engineering, she saw some of her people getting hurt.   
“GET TO SOMEWHERE SAFE NOW! EVACUATE THE AREA!”  
“Lieutenant!” Lydia turned around to find Elisha coming towards her. This girl was starting to be a Godsend to her. “The central power grid is failing.” She said showing Lydia her pad while the both held on for dear life.   
“Elisha listen to me, go to Level Two and log in to the central power computer. Strap on I don’t want you to get hurt. Wait for my orders once you get there.”  
“Yes ma’am,” she said turning around and going to where she had been told to do.   
Power, her ship needed power, and she had to find a way to give it to her or it would fall. If she didn’t get any power the Enterprise was going to die. She moved around engineering trying to hold on as the ship shook and twisted around. She was getting to one of the power cells when she heard the evacuation signal. Everyone had to go. Now.   
“Everyone go now. I can take care of this.” She was opening up the power cell and was trying to get it to come back to life.   
“No way Lieutenant, this is our ship too. We are no letting her die.”   
As Lydia turned around to watch her crew holding on around her, none moving away.   
“Ok then, there are two more cells on this level once we get the power on they are going to need to be functioning. Make sure they are intact, and another group go to the gravity system. Its going to start to fail soon. We need it ready for when the power comes back as well. Everyone go!” People moved to follow her orders. Lydia had to take a moment to breath. She could do this.   
As she finished she told one of her engineers to be ready for when the power came back on so he could switch it on and she started moving again. That’s when it happened, the gravity system failed. She was literally running on the walls now. How had things gone so wrong? 

That’s when she saw them. Jim, her Jim, and Scotty holding on for dear life on a railing. They were about to fall. She wasn’t going to let that happened. So as impossible as it seemed she was able to hold Jim just as he was going to fall.  
“I’ve got you baby, I’ve got you, just hold on.” Once gravity came back they were back on firm ground. She was pulled into Jim’s arms and she had to admit she wished she had never left his arms all does weeks ago when they were in bed.  
“I can’t explain how happy I am to know you are ok,” Jim said pulling her in and giving her a kiss.   
“Right back at you Jim.” The she turned to Scotty who was still trying to catch his breath. “Hey Scotty, boy is it good to see you too.”  
“Hello love, good to know I was missed.”  
“Always.” Once they were on more solid ground just in case the gravity decided to play with them again they turned ready to talk to each other.   
“So lassie what do you have?” Scotty asked her.  
“We have everything ready all we need is to get the warp core online. Everyone is ready to throw the switches once the power comes back.”  
“That’s good then, right?” Jim asked watching the two engineers look at each other.  
“Even if we get the warp core online, we've still got to redirect the power!” Scotty tried explaining to Kirk.  
“He's right, Jim!”  
“What are you talking about?” Jim asked them trying to keep up with the quickest and brightest brain he had ever met.  
“Someone has to hit the manual override. Lassie, there's a switch. It’s…”  
“Behind the deflector dish! I know! I'll flip the switch!” She started to turn and run toward the dish when she felt Jim pulling her back just to give her another kiss. Separating they gave each other a look before turning away. She heard Jim called out ‘Let’s go’ to Scotty as she turned the corner. Then the ship started to tilt making her slide down the hall. She couldn’t help herself it just came out. “FUCK!”  
“Elisha are you there?” She called out through her comms.  
“Yes ma’am.” Lydia could barely hear the girl but she sounded safe so she didn’t ask.   
“Once the power is back enter the back code this will make sure the power goes directly to the where it’s needed.”  
She finally made it to the manual override. She looked at the dish and made some arrangements throwing the lever. Then she looked at her pad and her heart stopped. The pad read ‘Core Misaligned’. The Enterprise was dead. She couldn’t believe it. She was the best engineer in her year, she had been helping the Fleet with multiple projects from around the universe, she could do things that many didn’t understand let alone try to replicate, Scotty himself had said he love working with someone that was so smart. Still, she couldn’t revive her ship, HER SHIP. She had lost her ship and there was nothing she could do about it. Even if she could try to get to the core, it was under so much radiation that once in there was no coming back. Then her pad made a noise. As she looked down at it, she saw it reading ‘CORE ONLINE’. She didn’t even think about it she threw the last lever needed.   
“Elisha NOW!”  
She watch her pad and saw the Enterprise coming back to life. Still there was something wrong with her. She knew that whatever happened the core was gone, and if there was one thing she knew it was that she didn’t believe in miracles, unless they had something to do with James T. Kirk. Without thinking about it she ran. 

As she made it to the core, she watched as the love of her life came out of the radiation chamber. He was coming into the decontamination compartment. When Jim saw her, he smiled at her.  
“Hey there you are,” he said his voice coming out very weakly.  
“What did you do Jim?” she asked with a smile. A smile that hid all her fears and her tears. Her love was dying in front of her and now all she could do was watch and let him go.   
“I was trying to save our ship.” He fell to the floor in front of the door and she slid down next to him.  
“Well you did a really good job love.”  
“I did?”   
“Are you kidding me? Without you there is no Enterprise Jim.”  
“Well is our home I didn’t want you to lose it.”  
Lydia heard Scotty calling Spock down but she could not give him any attention.   
“What are you talking about Jim? This ship isn’t my home. You are, it has always been you.”  
Jim lifted his hand against the glass and she put hers next to him.  
“Sorry, it seems I have disappointed you love.”  
“Jim,” she said hearing as Spock as he made it with someone else. She didn’t know who. She was not going to take her eyes of Jim. “You have never disappointed me. I love you too much for that to ever be a thing. We are going to be all right you did it. Just rest for now ok?” Not one single tear fell. No matter what she was not going to let Jim’s last look at her be of her crying.   
Spock had come next to her. 

“Open it,” he ordered someone behind her.   
“The decontamination process is not complete. You'd flood the whole compartment. The door's locked, sir.”  
“How's our ship?” Jim asked Spock turning his head just a fraction. It was like it hurt him to move. Lydia didn’t move from next to Jim but she gave him a minute with Spock never letting one tear fall. Ever since finding out about the alternate universe there was one thing Kirk had wanted from Spock. To become the brothers Spock Prime had said they were. They needed this moment she wasn’t going to take anything from this moment.  
“Out of danger. You saved the crew.”  
“You used what he wanted against him. That's a nice move.”  
“It is what you would have done.”  
“And this, this is what you would have done. It was only logical. I'm scared, Spock. Help me not be. How do you choose not to feel?”  
Lydia had to hold on. There was something that Jim hated and that was seeing her cry. She was not going to send him of with tears in her eyes. She wouldn’t let him see that. She could crumble later.  
“I do not know. Right now I am failing.”  
“I want you to know why I couldn't let you die. Why I went back for you.”  
“Because you are my friend.”  
Kirk put his hand against the door, and Spock puts his Vulcan salute over it. Kirk moved his fingers to match, and then turned his head back to her.  
“Take care of her for me Spock. She’s my world,” and with that he died. Right there, right in front of the people that loved him the most.  
She felt someone, who she later found out was Uhura, put their arms around her and hold her as she let all she was feeling go and started crying. It wasn’t body wrecking sobs though. She hated for people to see her crying. She let her tears fall down her face but held herself together. Just a little bit longer.   
“KAHN!” Wherever Kahn was Lydia knew he would never be safe. And she was really glad about it. Still, for a moment, for just a moment, she let go of everything and let her world collapse as between tears she watched Jim on the other side of the glass. 

Some medics came to take Kirk’s body once the decontamination process was done. Lydia, at some point, realized that Spock and Uhura had disappear, and she had come back without Spock. They walked Jim to the Med Bay. She looked around as everyone in the crew stopped and gave their respect to their Captain. Lydia was barely keeping it together. She had collapse in front of Jim but once the medic had come to collect the body she had shoved everything down. She would break down, but she would do it once she was alone once more. Uhura didn’t leave her side, once.  
As she walked into the Med Bay for the first time, she actually looked at someone in their face. Bones. She had tunnel vision. All she could see was Bones. She watched as every emotion dance on his face before he collapsed as well. Yet he didn’t stop, Bones walked up to her and pulled her into his arms, holding her as hard as he could.   
“I am so sorry, I am so sorry Lydia.”  
He kept holding her and she watched as everyone in the room turned to her as they gave her a salute with their head. Yes she and Jim were not married or anything close, but everyone in the Enterprise had seen their Captain and their Lieutenant together. Everyone knew how this two loved each other. For them she was important because she was important to their Captain. She let herself be hold by Bones, her friend, because she needed someone now.   
McCoy though tense when something on his desk started to make some noise. He let her go to turned towards the tribble he had injected with Kahn’s blood to see him move, the dead tribble. Moving to his desk, he read the animal’s vitals before turning to Carol.   
“Get me a cryo tube, now!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this took so long. There was some Covid scares and then I just fell into a black hole of depression and Lydia and Kirk ddserve better than that. But I am back and I can't wait for you guys to see my favorite chapter that is coming on soon. 
> 
> Love you all and I promise now that I am back it will be more consistent.


End file.
